Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Rents for ships hauling liquefied
natural gas reached a record as winter fuel demand runs up
against few available vessels, investment bank Pareto Securities
AS said.

The cost of hiring an LNG carrier for a year rose to
$150,000 a day, 11 percent higher than last week, the Oslo-based
bank said today in an e-mailed note, citing brokers’ estimates.
One-time cargoes cost $145,000 a day, up 16 percent from the
week before.

Charter rates will extend gains as few vessels are
available for immediate shipments and only six new vessels will
join the fleet next year, Per Kristian Reppe, a Pareto analyst,
said today by phone. Japanese demand for LNG rose as the island
nation seeks to replace nuclear power capacity lost since the
March earthquake and tsunami, Morgan Stanley said in a report
yesterday.

“We definitely see a tight market,” Reppe said. “We
don’t think anyone should be surprised if rates start to boom
further in the seasonally strong first quarter.”

Average daily rates for spot cargoes more than doubled this
year to $91,000 from $40,858 in 2010, according to Pareto.
Demand for the ships, which carry gas frozen at about 260
degrees below zero Fahrenheit, will grow 8 percent in 2012 while
the fleet grows 1 percent, Oslo-based shipowner Awilco LNG AS
said Nov. 23.

Higher Demand

Higher Asian demand for LNG shipped from Atlantic Ocean-based countries boosted distances traveled, lengthening voyage
times to curb supply and exacerbate a shortage of available
ships, according to Braemar Seascope Ltd., a London-based
shipbroker. Countries like Nigeria are also raising LNG output,
requiring additional ships to export it, according to the
company.

Shares of Golar LNG Ltd., the shipowner led by Norway-born
billionaire John Fredriksen, rose 0.8 percent to 260 kroner
($43.60) in Oslo, after rising 6.4 percent yesterday when
Morgan Stanley raised its 12- to 18-month price target to
$63. The company’s fleet includes nine LNG carriers, according
to its website. Awilco, which has three such carriers, gained
6.7 percent to 24 kroner. Hoegh LNG Holdings Ltd., which
operates seven of the vessels, fell 4.3 percent to 45 kroner.

The shortage of LNG carriers contrasts with a glut of ships
hauling oil and raw materials. Daily earnings for supertankers
on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan route averaged $17,882
this year, the lowest since at least 1997, according to data
from Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker. Rents for
capesizes, the largest ore carriers, averaged about $15,277 a
day, the lowest since 2002, according to the Baltic Exchange,
the London-based publisher of shipping costs.